Jan

17

Private Prisons and Accountability

Posted by: | January 17, 2012 | 4 Comments

Last week, in Minneci v. Pollard (No. 10-1104), the United States Supreme Court held that employees of privately run federal prisons cannot be sued for money damages for violations of constitutional rights.  By coincidence, last week also saw the release of a new report on private prisons by the Sentencing Project.  The report raises a multitude [...]

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Nov

28

New Affirmative Action Cases

Posted by: | November 28, 2011 | 2 Comments

[Editor's Note: This month, faculty members are posting on upcoming judicial decisions of particular interest. This is the second post in the series.] It seems almost certain that the Supreme Court will again take up the issue of affirmative action in higher education, as two highly controversial cases separately make their way up the appellate ladder. On two [...]

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Sep

8

Dismissal for Failure to Prosecute Does Not Count as PLRA Strike, Seventh Circuit Rules

Posted by: | September 8, 2011 | 1 Comment

Choosing form over substance, the Seventh Circuit ruled earlier this week that dismissals of a prison inmate’s repeated “unintelligible” complaints do not count as strikes under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, even though the cases should have been dismissed with prejudice for failure to state a claim. Paul v. Marberry (No. 10-3670). The PLRA requires [...]

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Jul

9

Measuring the McCarran-Ferguson Act’s Antitrust Immunity

Posted by: | July 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment

That insurance regulation rests primarily with the fifty states has become axiomatic and even cliché.  Around the country are operational state insurance commissions, and for much of the twentieth century, the federal government has let these agencies be.  The Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) sweeping preemptive force is cabined by a savings statute that allows [...]

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Apr

20

Springtime for Daubert: Insights From the EDWBA Panel

Posted by: | April 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In late January the “tort reform” package imposed the staid Daubert rules on the Wisconsin Rules of Evidence. Now it’s spring, although the weather feels a lot like January, and we must get serious about what to do with this gift that the judiciary did not want. The new rules require that expert testimony be [...]

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Apr

16

Lawyers: Play Nice

Posted by: | April 16, 2011 | 3 Comments

As you may have already seen, the blawgs have been discussing this recent order by United States District Court Judge Eric Melgren. Judge Melgren issued the order granting a motion for a continuance of a trial scheduled for June 14, 2011, in Kansas, after the defendant, a Dallas attorney,  sought the continuance on the grounds [...]

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Dec

6

Proposed Amendments to the Federal Rules

Posted by: | December 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment

OK, I admit to not being the biggest fan of NPR but I do listen and have always heard various events introduced, in dulcet tones, as coming from the National Press Club. Where was this club and how do you join? Can someone like me ever get in? Well, I still don’t suppose that I [...]

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Jun

11

What’s Good for the Goose . . .

Posted by: | June 11, 2010 | 5 Comments

Earlier this week, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued its decision in In Re Sherwin-Williams Co. The court upheld Judge Lynn Adelman’s decision not to recuse himself from a case pending before him in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Burton v. American Cyandamid, et al.  Sherwin-Williams is currently [...]

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May

19

Does the Threat of Future Copyright Infringement Amount to Irreparable Harm?

Posted by: | May 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Chief among the bundle of rights one obtains in property ownership is the right to exclude others from the use and enjoyment of that property.  This “sole and despotic dominion” that an individual commands over their property is placed in danger, of course, when the property becomes subject to the wants and needs of others.  [...]

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Feb

23

A Broadening of Diversity Jurisdiction

Posted by: | February 23, 2010 | 3 Comments

Students of civil procedure—which should mean just about everybody interested in using the formal processes of the law to vindicate rights—will be interested in a decision today by the United States Supreme Court. The opinion concerned the provision in the statutory grant of diversity jurisdiction that deems a corporation “to be a citizen of any [...]

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Nov

30

Eighth Circuit Reinstates ERISA Case Against Wal-Mart Involving Iqbal Plausibility Standard

Posted by: | November 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

A number of my ERISA friends have sent me the case of Braden v. Wal-Mart Stores, No. 08-3798 (8th Cir. Nov. 25, 2009).  The case involves a class action dispute, alleging breach of fiduciary issues in the way that Wal-Mart managed its profit sharing and 401(k) retirement plans: The gravamen of the complaint is that [...]

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Nov

9

The Verdict? A Very Successful Civil Trial Conference

Posted by: | November 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment

One of this Law School’s most noteworthy legacies is its production of many of the region’s most outstanding trial lawyers.  The legacy was fully evident on Friday, November 6, 2009 at the Civil Trial Evidence and Litigation Conference.  The sold-out event served as a “last call for Sensenbrenner Hall” of sorts while featuring a panel [...]

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